By Hunter Hammond
Posted Tue 4 June, 2024

It seems as though every day we wake up to a new technological advancement in multimedia. TikTok became the most used app, seemingly out of nowhere. AI is creating ultra realistic photos and video footage. VR/AR headsets will soon become an everyday item. Yet, with all of this, how many of us are taking advantage of the new possibilities for video?

Multimedia is increasingly cementing itself as an important part of everyday life, including in education. This makes it important to understand how the multimedia landscape is adapting and changing, and how we can take these lessons into our own work and lives.

When recording content, you want to have nice and even light on your face, normally by avoiding having a bright light source or window behind you.

Many of us have had to quickly develop our multimedia skills during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overnight, we had to become experts in video communication software, develop ways to make our, mostly, in-person jobs online-friendly and find ways to engage students who were often hidden from us with their cameras off. Now, hybrid teaching is quickly becoming an integral part of Higher Education, providing more flexibility to the way academics teach and the way students engage with their studies.

There are lots of factors that go into making an online learning environment successful. As a Multimedia professional in the Monash Education Design and Development team in the Portfolio of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), I am aware of plenty of great areas for educators to expand their multimedia repertoires, using examples I have encountered through my years of being behind the camera.

Be authentic to engage your audience

Firstly, an audience can feel the effort and energy you put into your media content. Whether weekly lectures or short summary videos, audiences can see the care and effort you put into your media assets, and this can contribute to high levels of sustained viewership and interaction. Effort is not just limited to the visual quality of a video, but the enthusiasm and passion shown through your innovation and how the content is presented. Something could look slick, but lack substance.

Effort is also evident in how you portray the content, and how you have helped the viewers to absorb the information. Be authentic and true to yourself and share your passion with the audience. If you don’t show interest, why would your audience? A benefit to this authenticity is that it allows you to come up with engaging and interesting ways to explain complex concepts.

The best example I have encountered in my time at Monash is a group of academics teaching about the reproductive system using an escape room, having students complete a series of activities to move along with videos connecting the story to the content. Take the time to think about your content through your audience’s perspective. Think about how multimedia elements are embedded in engaging activities for your students to do, ensuring they are both educational and captivating.

Can we hear and see you clearly?

Not everything needs to look like a Hollywood film, but it is important to keep the fundamentals in mind. When you’re ready to put your engaging content together, it’s important to have a plan and space in mind where you can really shine. There is nothing worse than not being able to clearly hear or see the person on the other side of a Zoom meeting or video. When recording content, you want to have nice and even light on your face, normally by avoiding having a bright light source or window behind you. A tip is facing towards a window as it will light you, not the camera.

Be in a quiet room where you can be heard without any distractions. An external microphone or camera is no longer essential, as our technology gets better, but it can be the content cherry on top. It’s also great to have a background that isn’t too distracting. This means that there aren’t lights flashing or things moving – we want to keep the attention on you. All too often we see videos with an air conditioning fan or buzz constantly distracting us in the background, with the shadowy figure of the presenter washed out from a bright background.

The importance of resilience and adaptability

There is no worse feeling than putting effort into a project and it falling flat. You may have put yourself out there and not been rewarded with the response you were hoping for. Even with meticulous planning and preparation, unexpected setbacks can occur. Don’t worry, not all is lost! This is part of the creative process and is a key step to getting something right. Feedback is an important part of the multimedia process because it helps you really narrow in to your audience and assists you in producing the right bit of content. Take these as an opportunity to connect with your audience, and work on making the adjustments needed. This could be as simple as removing the fluff from your content and narrowing down to the key points, aiming for a shorter video or using stronger visual examples to help consolidate complex concepts. Be resilient and always strive to be authentic and personable with your content.

Effort is not just limited to the visual quality of a video, but the enthusiasm and passion shown through your innovation and how the content is presented.

When developing content, it’s essential to keep accessibility in mind. Utilising multimedia is a great way to make your content more inclusive through videos and images. Working at Monash University has really reinforced this concept when I have been tasked with, or assisted with the creation of content. We should always strive to make our content and education more accessible for everyone.

What I have found to be some key areas to keep in mind are the use of colours, the use of readable text, ensuring all visuals are accompanied by captions and having options for audio prompts for those who have visual impairments. There are many tools that you can use to keep your content accessible, check out this Monash University example in Teach HQ (Accessibility in Moodle) for some specific university examples when it comes to online learning. Keep these concepts in mind when creating your next video.

Through the use of multimedia, you can open up a world of possibilities for engaging students and finding new and creative ways to get content across. Think outside the box, look at your media and see if there is anything you can do to make it more engaging. Let’s embrace the incredible possibilities that multimedia offers to create authentic and engaging content!

Please feel free to share your unique approaches to using video to enhance online engagement.